side table Archives - Laughing Mantis Studio

African wood-themed bedside table

Bedside table is done!!

@tamarynart told me a couple weeks ago that she wanted a little table to replace the tiny stool that had been next to her side of the bed. It had to fit between the closet door and bed. She picked the padauk for the top (which roughly matches her ginger hair). Since she grew up partially in South Africa (her whole mom’s side is there), and the padauk is African, I decided to do something a little special for the drawer face. The wood is African stinkwood, which I talked about at length in the Jasper Family intarsia post. It’s from a chair my South African mom-in-law @sledv_life_rocks bought in the 70s. The pieces I have are small, so I glued up a couple with a walnut strip in the middle. The pull was hand-carved – intentionally rough and faceted. The base is walnut I got on clearance. The drawer was made from a really old 2×4” I found in our basement when we moved in (probably from the 50s). It will soon be graced with a small Qi-charging/USB lamp

I’d say that turned out pretty damned close to my original design! This was my first time making something from rough cut lumber. I designed this piece in SketchUp to sit next to our couch, be usable for drinks on the side and knick-knacks on the back, and hold all of Tamaryn’s cookbooks. I built it out of scrap lumber obtained from a furniture maker – these were his cutoffs. The tops are live-edge walnut, the base is ash, and the shelves are walnut and mahogany. The whole thing took roughly three weeks from start to finish. Much of it’s creation was documented with more descriptions on instagram.